The present application relates to mobile terminals, and in particular, to data communication performed between a mobile terminal and an external device.
Contactless IC (Integrated Circuit) cards are capable of performing near-field or proximity wireless communication. With development in information technologies, users can now cause automatic ticket checkers equipped at station ticket gates to open/close the gates utilizing contactless IC cards or the like so as to pass through the gates.
In the above-mentioned automatic ticket checker system or the like, mutual authentication is performed between a reader/writer (R/W) and a contactless IC card. The automatic ticket checker opens/closes the gates on the basis of ticket information, such as commuter pass information, stored in a secure storage area in the contactless IC card (See, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 10-20780).
Contactless IC card technologies have been rapidly developing. The contactless IC cards can perform data processing in a short time period, which is advantageous with respect to security. Contactless IC cards are now widely used in systems, such as a public transportation entrance system and an office attendance management system.
Furthermore, mobile phones include contactless IC chips (or a near-field communication device), which are the above-described contactless IC card modules. Users can now buy products with the mobile phones.
However, most of the above-described systems are only compatible with communication initiated from a reader/writer or an external device to a contactless IC chip. That is, most of the above-described systems are not compatible with communication initiated from a contactless IC chip to another contactless IC chip included in a mobile terminal (i.e., an external device), such as a mobile phone and PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), which exists outside the contactless IC chip.